SPD Workflow Error Solved : cannot perform this operation, the file is no longer checked out or has been deleted

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nAfter long chase behind this issue finally I figured out the solution.
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nIssuen : You create a new workflow using SharePoint designer and publish it. nbut suddenly notice that the workflow status says – Failed to start. nafter further research on buddy Google you know that there are some nfiles which are not checked in which are causing workflow not to start. n(Reference – Here)
nYoun again go to SPD and see – oh yes , why these xoml and xsn files are nstill checked out? never mind , you go ahead and tries to check in the nfiles. but what?? you gets an error message – cannot perform this noperation, the file is no longer checked out or has been deleted. and nyou wonder why??
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nSolution :
nThere are couple of nsolutions which I found over the web , so I will mention all of them andn the one which worked for me.(which I had to figure out).
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  • Clear SharePoint Designer Cache – There are already many articles on this.you can refer Here.

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  • Check Alternate Access Mapping – Many blogs said that one should check nthe AAM on the server for your site collection. but for my case this wasn not possible as I was working on SharePoint Online. Reference Here.

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  •  Check the required fields –

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n I will discuss more about the last approach which worked for me.
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n[Update]: Note that below approach was verified with SharePoint 2010, however for similar issues of SP 2013 and workaround for the same – please take a look at comments section.
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nWhen you create a new SharePoint workflow using SPD , it gets stored in to the hidden document library in site – known as Workflows.n This library is similar to other document libraries in SharePoint whichn has many fields to store metadata. Whenever you create new workflow , nthere are some files which gets created – like xoml , config and xsn. byn default – the “Name” column in initiated with the file name but Title remains empty.
nIn my case – Title column was  marked as “Required“.n and this was the reason SPD was throwing an error as it was not able ton find the Title field value before checking in. but the Error message nwas kind of generic one.
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nSolution was simple – make then Title column in the workflow library optional. but how to do that ? as nworkflow library is hidden.
nWell that’s simple -(steps mentioned are for SharePoint Designer 2010)
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  1. Open SharePoint Designer.

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  2.  Select All files from left navigation. select workflows and go to nproperties. (right click workflows > properties) , and you will see nworkflow list settings.

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  3. In this window – find customization section and click on Edit list columns.

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  4. Make sure that the Title column is set nas optional. If it is required – right click > column settings > nand check allow blank values > click ok and save.

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  5. and you are done. now you should be able to check in workflow files.

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nI hope this helps someone. Happy Coding.. 🙂
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